1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a control method for the same that allow digitization of original information and generation of data reusable in other apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Conventionally, an information processing apparatus such as a multi-function printer/peripheral (hereinafter referred to as an MFP) has a function of transforming data of a scanned original or print data received over a network into bitmap data and then storing the data. The stored print data can be transferred to other apparatuses and reused there.
For example, a paper document can be converted into digital data and sent to any destination through e-mail or FTP communication. At this point, conventionally the bitmap data is transferred after being converted into a file format such as a common image format like TIFF or JPEG, or the PDF format, which is a document format developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated. In this case, once the data is transformed into the bitmap data, text information and vector information are lost. This prevents later flexible editing.
However, in recent years, techniques have been disclosed by which vector information is restored from an input image or print data and stored in an information processing apparatus to allow later reuse.
For example, there are techniques of converting an image of a text region included in an original into vector data. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-157578 discloses a technique by which a contour by connected pixels in a binary image is obtained as a functional description. By using this data in a document creating application, geometric deformation and coloring can be easily performed for change of the position or size in a character unit. Data described vectorially by using such a technique can be used in applications capable of editing line drawings.
In this manner, image data input to an information processing apparatus can have vector information, so that the data can be converted into various file formats depending on the purpose of later reuse. The vectorization also provides reduction in data amount compared to the image data.
However, due to the convertibility into various file formats, the task for a user to determine which file format is optimal and select a conversion format in each use case becomes troublesome.
For example, even if one user considers a file format A as an optimal conversion format, another user may consider a file format B different from the file format A as optimal because the other user does not have an application for editing the file format A. In other possible cases, some file formats may reduce the edit efficiency in a user's environment or may prevent a user from using an edit function the user wants to use. Therefore, a user has had to determine a file format from many choices.